My Two Words for 2026

Okay, so tomorrow starts a new year. I'm recording this on December 31st, 2025. And I'm taking an approach this year about not setting resolutions. I know you guys have probably heard that before. I'm not creating resolutions. I'm not setting a long list of goals this year. I'm choosing two words to define 2026 for me. Because one word, or in this case, two helps cut through the noise. It's a filtering mechanism, right? It simplifies decisions. It studies you when things feel loud or overwhelming. There's too much noise and uncertainty. And you can fall back on the one word that defines you or two words. Maybe you have one word for your business life, another word for your personal life, whatever it is. And so the concept from this idea of the one word comes from a book which you may have heard is called One Word That Will Change Your Life. And the authors are John Gordon, Dan Britain, and Jimmy Page. I actually interviewed Jimmy Page on this podcast quite a number of years ago, about episode 3531 I think it was. And so since then, I've been kind of going in and out of using the idea and the concept of the one word to define and create focus for your year. And so this year, as I said, I'm choosing two words. And that's why I want to share is my two words for 2026. Why they matter to me and how you can choose your own perhaps if you choose to in a way that actually sticks. Okay, so why one word works. Look, I've always liked the idea of choosing one word for the year instead of choosing a bunch of resolutions because resolutions like they feel like they add a lot of pressure and overwhelm and like, you know, a lot of people know that resolutions don't actually happen, right? One word adds clarity. It's easy to remember, it's easy to repeat. It becomes like a mantra, as I said, it's defining, clarifying, it strips away all the noise, it's easier to live with day to day. And rather than like feeling pushed, right? A word helps ground you or pull you forward into the direction, the vision that you see for yourself in the new year. So again, it becomes your filter for decisions, energy and focus especially when things get noisy or overwhelming, which they're definitely bound to do, right? And sometimes you don't necessarily choose the word. Sometimes the season in life that you're in kind of reveals the word. So I encourage you to, over the next few days, take some quiet time to go through some of the questions I'm about to ask you, but to help you clarify your one word. Now, for me, I haven't done a solo episode in a while, but there will be more coming in the new year. But there's a reason for that. I want to share something personal. I've not said publicly yet on this podcast. And that is for some of you listening right now, you may not know that, let's see, it was back in, where are we now or January. I think it was November that I was diagnosed with throat cancer. And so the way I've been saying it is this, is that the bad news is I have throat cancer. The good news is it's treatable. The bad news is the treatment sucks. The treatment is two rounds of chemotherapy, which I've had one. I'm going back on December 6th to have the second round. And then about two weeks after that, I start a month-long series of radiation with five days a week, twice on Friday, radiation treatments to the head and neck area. So I'm okay. I'm grateful and I'm very aware that this season has changed me. And I'm not sharing this for your sympathy. I'm sharing this because it's shaped how I'm choosing to live life and lead my life, who I'm choosing to become, moving forward. And yes, there was a moment of fear, not certainly in doubt for sure, but what's really been overwhelming overflow for me is my number one and first word for 2026. And that is gratitude. Gratitude has become overwhelming. I mean, literally like an outpouring of gratitude from people. And if you're listening to this right now, and you're one of the people who's reached out to me, you know who you are, we've communicated on social media, DMs, text messages, phone calls, whatever. You know who you are, and I appreciate that. And there's tremendous amount of gratitude for you. And by the way, if you're listening to this, we don't know each other well enough. Don't feel pressured or anything like that. It's just, you know, it is what it is. So no matter what, I have gratitude for you listening right now. If you've been listening to this podcast for any period of time, whether it's a month, a year or almost 10 years that I've been doing it, I again, tremendous amount of gratitude for support I didn't expect for conversations, prayers, text, and encouragement. And honestly, gratitude for being drawn back in deeper into my daily relationship with God. This season has brought me back to scripture, back to daily reading of the word, back to the reminder that there's purpose and the struggle and pain back to a relationship with God, with Jesus. And as awkward and as, you know, probably, I don't know what the word is. Uncharacteristic of me to say that out loud. What's always been there for me underneath the surface. I haven't been the most vocal about it or public public, but this season has brought me to the place where I want to be. Because of the presence of God being with me as I go through this, because of God showing up for me with me in so many different ways through people, most of all, through people, but also through His presence and me choosing to be in His presence. So God hasn't removed the cancer, right? Modern medicine is working on that, but it's given me purpose in meaning. So my first word for 2026 is gratitude. Gratitude is the filter and the lens through which I'm seeing my life. It's a gift, right? And so here's the thing. Gratitude has clarified what's really mattered. It's also clarified what doesn't really matter. And that's where my second word comes from. Word number two for 2026 is delegate, delegate. So delegate isn't about doing less. It's about doing what only I should be doing. One of my biggest sources of overwhelm over the past year has been getting stuck in the weeds, especially around tech and systems and day-to-day operational minutia. It has been pulling me down. It has been keeping me from being the best version of me and having a bigger impact in the world with people like you who happen to be listening right now. And there's value, but there's also a cost, right? So when life reminds you, as my cancer diagnosis had reminded me earlier this year, that my energy is finite. I don't have unlimited energy or time. And what it does is really clarify where you want to be spending most of your time, where you are getting fed the most, where you get switched on the most, and then you get really clear about stop wasting time. Stop majoring in minors. Stop getting stressed out about everything. So delegate is the word for me and how I will protect my creative energy, my relationship energy, my leadership energy, my health, and my faith. Delegate is how I steward what's been given to me by God, my talents, and resources. So gratitude is my lens, delicate is my discipline. Gratitude shapes how I see life, delicate shapes, how I steward it. One shapes my heart, the other shapes my calendar. And so here's what I want you to hear. You're allowed to choose a grounding word and an operational word. I want you to look up the book, one word, Amazon, wherever on the internet, there's lots of free resources attached to the book. And I want you to go through an exercise. I'm going to provide for you here in the next moment. Choose a grounding word, choose an operational word, maybe just choose one word. That's fine, right? So rules on this. You can choose words for different areas of your life. When you're choosing your word or your words, ask yourself the following questions. You may want to write these down, may want to play this later, if you happen to not be driving or whatever. But when you're choosing your words, ask yourself the next five questions. This is the exercise I went through to get to my two words. And I'm going to provide a resource resource for you in a moment, a custom GPT that's going to help you in just a moment. So stay tuned for that. But first and foremost, ask yourself number one, what am I carrying that no longer fits? What bags do I need to put down? What luggage? What backpack? What weighted vest? Do I need to no longer carry and put down? Number two, what do I need to stop, reduce, or no longer tolerate? That was a big one for me. And that's one that it's not one and done. It's a continual work and progress. Number three, where should my best energy go day to day? Yeah, the suspending time in your genius zone, right? Where your real talents and gifts lie that don't drain energy, but fill you up with energy. Number four, what do I need more of and less of to succeed sustainably? Ooh, that's a good one. Why do I need more of and less of? You already can probably gather what I need less of from my second word, delegate, which is I need less time, mired in the muck of the minutia and the tech and the overwhelming the systems. And there are people that I can delegate that to. I need more of time spending with people that matter, working on ideas that make a difference. Number five, when things get noisy or difficult, what inner instruction do I want one word to give me? See, that's what's cool about the one word, right? Is when you're when it's when it's the stuff's hit in the fan, right? Sometimes you can just pause and ask yourself, you're one word. Am I living my one word? Am I living gratitude? Am I living delegation? That will help clear the noise, clear the smoke and help you refocus. So it's not about choosing the perfect word. It's about the right word feels grounding, right? Not like a performance, but it feels grounding and you feel connected to it. Like it really feels relevant for you and where you are. And so I went through this exercise of these five questions and also, I've created a custom GPT for you to make this easier. It's free. There's no opt-in. There's no paywall. There's no give me your email, whatever. It's just a way that I want to give back to you. Again, gratitude. Because if you're listening to this right now, I have tremendous amount of gratitude. And I want to demonstrate that for you. So I've put together this custom GPT, which is really easy to use, that walks you through the five simple questions that we just went through to help you choose your word, to write a guiding statement, and to help create a yes-no decision filter that you can actually use all year. I've included resources from the book, the one word. And because there's a study guide with that, there's like other things that help you walk through the using of this tool. And so you will find a link in the show notes, or you can simply go to tinyurl.com, forward slash 2026 word. Once again, that's tinyurl.com forward slash toward, or just check the link in the show notes. It'll take you right there to the custom GPT. And it'll give you some prompts. It'll say, you know, it's a guide for choosing one clear word to anchor your year using insights and examples from the one word that will change your life book and additional resources. So there's four prompts that are already ready to go. You just need to tap it, click it, and it'll walk you through the entire guided process to help you choose your one word, help you focus on picking a word, a simple clear way to find your one word, and then walk you through the one word process. All that's available to you, just as my thank you for you tuning in and listening to the podcast. So I hope you enjoy that resource. And if you do, reach out to me on social media, Instagram, LinkedIn, whatever. And let me know that you got it and liked it and, you know, what what what comments you might have about about that. So before I wrap up one last thing, one of the ways I'm practicing delegating in 2026 is leaning fully into work that creates real leveraging impact. In January, when you're probably listening to this in the middle of January, I'm going to be opening up a new agent referral accelerator cohort. What is that? Well, that is a 10 week live high touch accelerator program for mortgage professionals who are done chasing agents and want a predictable referral pipeline built around teaching simple, high impact, high value agent classes that are completely turn key and that I equip you with exactly the steps of how to do it, how to fill the room, how to get the right partners, how to drive conversations and referrals from leading with education and building a personal brand platform. So the outcome is real simple. Over 10 weeks, we're going to turn two agent classes into a predictable referral machine for you. And then in the first 30 days, you know, we're going to teach your first class. We'll book follow up conversations with agents who actually want to talk to you. These are real productive agents that do want to meet with you and do have business to refer to you. And then we'll continue on and repeat that process. They're with a second class and we'll turn that into something repeatable. So referrals stop feeling random and start feeling reliable and repeatable referrals on demand, if you will. So if you've been listening to this episode and you're saying, I need more clarity and focus on a system that actually works for getting referrals on demand predictably, this might be for you. I don't know. But there's also a link on the show notes for you to just raise your hand and say, hey, I'm interested and reserve your spot for an upcoming informational session. We'll have about the release of the agent accelerator. So if it's for you, just see the link the show notes below and follow the prompt there and we'll confirm that your seat is reserved and look for a date coming up that will announce essentially the the rollout of this whole agent referral accelerator new cohort. Okay, so wrap it up here. I appreciate you guys listening. This here isn't about more goals and more stuff to do, right? It's about clearer choices that support you in your vision. So whether you choose one word or two, I hope for you is that you're going to use the custom chat GPT link in the show notes below to help you go through this choosing your one word or two words, whatever it is. I hope you implement it. I hope you live it. I hope you let me know how it's impacted you and your business and your life in the coming weeks and months. And I just want to say closing it out here that as we head into the new year looking back once again, I'm so grateful for you. I appreciate you and look forward to connecting with you more in the new year. Happy new year. Best of everything to you and we'll see you on the next one. Bye for now.